Team Talk

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

"Just the workshop on Wikipedia editing," I told myself at the start of the conference. It would come in handy to start and edit NCBS wikipages, part of my work at the NCBS News team. "And maybe just the first plenary talk too". At the end of the three-day Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS), I realised I had attended almost every session: plenaries, student talks, workshops, poster rounds and discussions. What had made it so engaging?

Friday, September 23rd, 2011

The Max Planck-NCBS Center on Lipid Research was opened on 22nd September 2011. The Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) and NCBS signed an MoU to facilitate collaboration on lipid studies and cell signaling in general.

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

Scientists, for the first time ever, are asking the Indian public what they should be studying. What, according to the public, are the most important questions to ask about the natural world - the plants, animals, habitats and the people that interact with them? There are a multitude of threats that these systems face in India and the public's opinion is imperative. This has prompted fifteen scientists across seven organisations to come up with a nationwide internet survey: The Horizon Scanning India. This simple two-stage questionnaire aims to pinpoint priority areas of future research that Indians think are necessary to protect biodiversity, ecosystems and natural assets across India.

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

Encouraging networks of volunteers to participate in research projects serves two purposes: to do research that is not possible otherwise, and to engage the larger community in the process of science. Citizen science programs have taken these ideas to new heights by partnering with the general public to contribute through their computers, brain power or observations. These contributions are used to explore for extra-terrestrial life, understand protein folding and collect ecological data. In some countries, massive datasets of high quality have resulted from the efforts of volunteers who make the time to contribute to these projects. In India, organized citizen science is now picking up steam.

Monday, July 4th, 2011

After spending a year-long sabbatical at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, and just before heading back to Marseille, Thomas Lecuit recently gave his final talk to a packed audience at NCBS. It was full of surprises as the live natural performance of his children occurred in concert with their father's talk, on "Tissue Dynamics".

Here, Thomas Lecuit shares his thoughts about his life-time spent uncovering the secrets of tissue morphogenesis.

Friday, July 1st, 2011
Everyone's excited about the upcoming workshop on popular science writing that you're going to be conducting at NCBS, the very first of its kind here. Do tell us more about it.

Anil: We're organizing a short, ten days-long course on popular science writing here at NCBS, starting on the 24th of August. We've just announced the course and are taking in applications now. This time it's open to only students and staff in NCBS, and to a few outsiders who have been active contributors to NCBS News. In future workshops we will consider applications from outside NCBS as well.

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

Samrat Mondol, a PhD student in Uma Ramakrishnan's lab was recently chosen for the prestigious Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral and Professional Research Fellowship. This will fund his visit the University of Washington for the next nine months.  Samrat will be provided with a scholarship, stipend and air travel to conduct research, audit courses and gain experience from the research milieu at the University.

Saturday, April 23rd, 2011

The Human Frontier Science Program supports novel, innovative and interdisciplinary basic research focused on the complex mechanisms of living organisms; topics range from studying systems by molecular and cellular approaches, to cognitive neuroscience. It encourages novel collaborations that tackle problems at the frontier of the life sciences by bringing biologists together with scientists from fields such as physics, mathematics, chemistry, computer science and engineering. Such projects, beyond the reach of individual laboratories, are supported by grants that draw together teams of scientists from different countries.

At the end of 2010, 10th HFSP Awardees Meeting was held in Kerala from 31st Nov-3rd October. Prof. Ramanathan Sowdhamini was appointed as Principal Investigator for a project which will enable a focused thrust over a wide range of areas: bioinformatics, experimental biochemistry and biophysics, and mathematical modelling. These will all be applied to help understand the biology of a group of mechanosensory proteins called myosins.

Friday, April 15th, 2011

On 14th of March our wildlife students along with 5 faculty members left for the Andaman Islands for 2 weeks to be trained in marine ecology as part of the Master's course in Wildlife Biology and Conservation. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an archipelago of over 350 islands, provide extraordinary opportunities for wildlife studies. The islands have almost 90% forest cover, and the mangroves and evergreen forests form habitats for species of about 200 birds, 85 reptiles, 60 mammals and thousands of invertebrates. Many of these are found nowhere else in the world. The coastline consists of sandy beaches, rocky shores, coral reefs, shallow and open seas, making this an incredible place to study marine ecology. From the conservation viewpoint too, there is much to think about here. Thirty-eight of the islands are permanently inhabited, and the flora and fauna, along with the many indigenous tribes (such as the Jarawas, Sentinalese and Great Andamanese) face a variety of pressures from an accelerating influx of settlers from the mainland.

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

Finally, we have another reason to believe that everyone is hard at work within the walls at NCBS! Faculty, students and researchers have lit up the world stage and brought back accolades. Here, we present a list of the prize winners from 2008 and 2009. We hope to follow up soon with a list from 2010!

Saturday, April 2nd, 2011
In 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail to find India, but never did. Roll forward the centuries, and the suave biological pirate, Vivek Malhotra, a more successful veteran of Indo-Spanish reconnaissance, will shortly attempt landfall in Bangalore. Vivek, also professor at the Centre for Genomic Regulation, is one of a crew of 11 scientists from Barcelona, and he shares co-captaining duties with Enrique Martin-Blanc, professor at The Molecular Biology Institute of Barcelona. What draws the Indian and Spanish teams together is a commitment to fundamental biological research of the highest calibre. Over the course of two days, April 6-7, the visiting scientists will deliver lectures at NCBS and participate in discussions with their colleagues aimed at forging collaborative scientific links between the two sides. Full details and the programme can be accessed using this link.
Monday, January 10th, 2011
One of the leading US research centres, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, home to 15 Nobel laureates since 1987, recently announced an international early career scientist program, which will support up to 35 scientists working in selected countries outside the United States. The program will support investigators who "are, or have the potential to become, scientific leaders". India is one of the eligible countries for applicants. The International Early Career Scientist Program will select and support highly qualified scientists who are in the critical beginning stages of their independent careers. HHMI International Early Career Scientists will receive very attractive five-year grants—$US250,000 in the first year and $US100,000 for each of the following four years. While applicants will be currently working outside of the US, they must have trained in the United States at the doctoral, medical or postdoctoral level. Applications close February 23, 2011 and full information can be found at this site: http://www.hhmi.org/research/competitions
Saturday, January 8th, 2011

The NCBS news site has just celebrated its first year of existence, so it is time to take a closer look at what was achieved in 2010. The interest in the news site has been much greater than I would have ever expected. We have been monitoring its access using Google Analytics, which tells us that overall there were 95,007 pageviews in 2010, from 28,704 visits. The average visit lasted 3:24 minutes and perused 3.31 pages. Visitors logged in from 115 countries including such exotic locations as Guinea-Bissau, Kiribati and Côte d’Ivoire. The cities tally was even more remarkable - 1,518 - and many of the place names also tantalise as travel destinations: San Cristobal de la Laguna (Tenerife), Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine), and Steamboat Springs (USA). I see there is an obvious need to extend the evaluation of our reader base by some on-location reporting!

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

There are cells which don't live or behave by the accepted set of rules. These cells have evolved adaptations to survive the unusual niches they inhabit, and include bacteria, eukaryotes and other life-forms that do not seem to fit into any neat category. Of course to these cells their niches are not unusual at all - "extreme"  is a rather anthropocentric term, and presumes to define what is normal. We will talk about these cells and their adaptations in great detail, come Wednesday, and try to draw out some basic evolutionary concepts underlying cellular development and the gradual appearance of multi-cellularity. And on Tuesday, Prof. Samir Damare from National Institute of Oceanography, Goa is visiting NCBS to kick off this week's celebration of Xtreme Biology with a talk about the extreme environment of the deep sea and the organisms that dwell there.

Saturday, October 23rd, 2010

The first NCBS  photocompetition has culminated after an exciting neck to neck competition, with two images racing ahead to win the popular vote. Durafshan Sakeena's image of the reflection of the NCBS buildings caught on a table-top at the cafeteria won the imagination of most NCBSians and soared ahead to win top spot in the Popular Vote Prize. A victory immediately after her successful completion of the comprehensive exam should come as sweet reward after all her hard work.

Thursday, October 21st, 2010

The University of Cambridge has conducted the 'Student Conference on Conservation Science' (SCCS) since the year 2000 in order to provide a platform for emerging ecologists and conservationists around the world to meet, and discuss current issues in conservation with experts in the field. The year 2010 saw the first edition of the Indian chapter, named SCCS-Bangalore (www.sccs-bng.org), which, like its Cambridge counterpart, focused on student participation and training by means of presentations, workshops and discussions. Four years of planning by Suhel Quader from NCBS, Raman Sukumar from IISc and others culminated in an event hosting about 320 participants including 20 oral presentations and 46 posters. Additional events included panel discussions on controversial issues, and a session called “Who's Who in Conservation”, where representatives from different conservation-related organisations interacted with participants.

Friday, October 15th, 2010

Aditya Joshi, an unassuming member of the 2010 Master's in Wildlife Biology and Conservation Program was awarded the prestigious Ullas Karanth - J. Paul Getty award this year. This award, instituted to honor both academic and conservation excellence for the students of the Master's program, is in its second year of existence and Aditya is the third awardee. In addition to covering tuition and others costs of the course, this Fellowship also entitles Aditya to a travel grant to attend an international seminar to present results of his dissertation project.

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

The 7th of July 2010 saw Krishnapriya Tamma of Lab 3 (Dr Uma Ramakrishnan's lab), attending her first day at the workshop on Analytical Methods in Paleobiology, organized by the Paleobiology Database.Originally started by a group of young paleontologists and popularized by John Alroy, this database is an important forum for all paleontologists. The story of evolution cannot be told without fossil evidence, but understanding their role in the history of life on our plan has remained esoteric at best. Given the incomplete nature of the fossil record, this database plugs a major hole in fossil datasets, by allowing access to fossil datasets from all across the world. It also organizes this workshop every year, for 12 students selected from across the world. usually organized in Santa Barbara, US, this time the course made its debut in Sydney.

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